This morning, I had the chance to listen to Jordyn Zimmerman share the keynote presentation at the PETE&C conference. If you are unfamiliar with Ms. Zimmerman, she is a nonspeaking autistic woman who shares her story of being mistreated and forgotten as a student until she was able to access assistive technology to allow others to hear her voice. She is a passionate educator and disability advocate whose story is one of hope, that we, as educators, need to be more intentional about accessibility for all students in order for all students to be heard.
What struck me most about Jordyn’s presentation was early on, when she asked a large room of one thousand plus educators to turn and share with each other. She placed a single caveat on the activity: we were only allowed to gesture but not allowed to speak. About one minute in, she used her device to say “It’s annoying, isn’t it?!” which got a chuckle from the large group, but made me think deeply about the importance of words, and more importantly, voice.
Jordyn suffered in her early years as a student because she couldn’t share her voice. No one took the time to provide her the support she needed to share what she was thinking or how she felt. Today, her words poured out (through the use of assistive technology) to a mostly silent audience. I know that like me, most people were listening carefully to the words with deep intent. We were listening deeply because the words were so important.
We need to hold this same reverence for the words of all students. As Jordyn advocates, we need to make sure that accessible technology is available to all students. It is a necessity. We need to make sure that we understand the importance of the words that all of our students share, from our youngest learners to our high school and college age students.
Words matter. But more importantly, as Jordyn shared to end her presentation, our beliefs and action in response to those words matter more.
Rich
